Rohan Murty shows way to optimize spectrum use

When he is not helping his father at Infosys, he is writing academic papers. And the latest from Rohan Murty, son of Infosys co-founder and chairman N R Narayana Murthy and a junior fellow at Society of Fellows at Harvard University, is about a software algorithm that he and two colleagues have developed. The algorithm allows spectrum owners to sell or sub-lease unused or under-utilized spectrum in a seamless way, ensuring there is no interference to the owner's own operation.

The system also persuades participants to bid optimally, instead of strategically, and Murty and colleagues have therefore named the algorithm 'Satya'. "It is strategy-proof, that is, truthful bidding is optimal. Hence, our emphasis on 'truth'. "Also, Harvard's motto is Veritas, Latin for truth, and we chose to instead find a Sanskrit word," Murty said in an email interaction with TOI. Murty is currently on leave from Harvard and serves as executive assistant to his father.

Murty and his fellow researchers — David Parkes, a Harvard professor, and Ian Kash, a researcher from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK — have co-authored the paper 'Enabling Spectrum Sharing in Secondary Market Auctions' that lays down the details of their solution. The paper was published last month in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, a peer-reviewed scientific journal sponsored by the Computer Society at IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, based in New York).

Currently, spectrum auctions tend to be monolithic allocations where the winner takes it all. Satya, on the contrary, creates a secondary market for spectrum. Spectrum owners can lease spectrum to many small users.

"It has the potential to raise more revenue for spectrum owners by enabling a secondary market for potentially unused or under-utilized spectrum while ensuring there is no interference to the owner's own operation," Murty said.

The system, Murty says, lowers entry barriers for small spectrum buyers to compete with the big boys.

Murty's paper is closely linked to the work he did for his PhD thesis on Systems on Dynamic Spectrum Access. His thesis focused on how spectrum efficiency could be improved by building the next generation of wireless systems. He believes there is an increasing realization in the US, UK and other countries about the need for new paradigms of spectrum allocations.

"I worked on building systems and algorithms that demonstrated how this can be done well, the challenges and potential solutions. This was the core part of my thesis work. My work on Satya built on this further to see how we can design for dynamic spectrum access in secondary market," Murty said.

In India, the latest round of telecom spectrum auctions was seen as a success with the government mopping up over Rs 60,000 crore. But companies paid huge amounts that could raise costs for customers. Asked if Satya, with its sub-leasing option, could address this problem, Murty said, "The answer to this question is not entirely straightforward. There are several other factors including network costs and quality of service factors one needs to consider as well. This is a well-studied and debated area. You can make the argument run both ways. It depends on the context and I am not (yet) qualified to comment on the Indian context."

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